KY eats – Penang Mini Apom

Sure, Penang is famous for it’s char kueh teow, laksa, and curry mee, but for those of you who wants to still have something to chew during those pesky couple hours in between meals, here’s something you definitely should not miss – mini apom!

one of the mini apom stalls – Apom Chooi

I’ve had these mini apoms for as long as I can remember, some 20 odd years ago, it was 7 apoms for RM 1.00, now they are RM 0.35 a piece, but they guy will happily sell 3 for RM 1.00 too. Inflation is a bitch isn’t it?

So far as I can tell, there are only two stalls selling these mini apoms in Penang, and I haven’t managed to find an equivalent anywhere else either. These guys aren’t young either, so you might be looking at the last line of mini apom sellers. Rumor had it that the two sellers are related, and aren’t talking to each other, something that owners of Bernard’s and Champs can related too, I’m sure.

addictive mini apom with sweet corn and banana slices

As for the apom itself, it’s sweet with a hint of savory. The two standard ingredients inside the apom are banana slices and sweet corn. The feeling of sweet corns bursting in your mouth while chewing the apom can be very… rewarding.

Try it before stalls like these go away for good. If you know where I can find this at Klang Valley please do share ya!

Address:
Outside Union Primary School,
Burma Road, Penang
GPS: 5.423212, 100.321988

KY cooks – Mui Choy Pork

It is no secret that one of my favorite meat is pork, the most versatile and tasty of all meat if you ask me. The only meat that is prohibited by at least 2 major religions must only mean that it is so good it’s practically a sin to indulge one with such luxury.

So when we started cooking regularly, it was one of my aim to be able to master as many pork dishes as possible. Since I’ve managed the tau eu bak (braised pork belly with soya sauce), naturally the next one would be mui choy pork belly.

ingredients for mui choy pork – mui choy, garlic, pork

Mui choy pork is a dish that is more popular in central Malaysia than up north in places like Penang. I first tasted it when studying at KL, and never did remember my mom making this dish.

Anyway, the list ingredients is pretty simple:

• pork belly, 300 gram
• 1 portion mui choy (any wet market)
• plenty of garlic
• 1 table spoon dark soya sauce
• 1-2 teaspoon sugar (according to taste)

steps in cooking mui choy pork

Cooking this dish is also very simple, but do remember that step one is never to be skipped or skimmed (will tell you why later)

• soak mui choy for at least one to two hour, change water 2-3 times in between, use slightly warm water for better effect
• pan fry the pork belly till slightly brown
• chopped mui choy in small pieces and fry with pork belly, add dark soya sauce
• cut pork belly into bite size then simmer with mui choy for at least 30 mins, add just enough water to cover half the pork and monitor every 5 minutes
• add sugar to taste before serving

mui choy pork goes well with sambal belacan

Alternatively, the simmering step can also be replaced with steaming. The benefit of steaming is that you don’t need to constantly make sure that you don’t run out of water.

The dish is best served with sambal belacan, the salty mui choy really does accentuate the taste of succulent pork with that layer of fat. I’m ready to make this dish again.

Vinn, KY, and Haze

During this first attempt, I actually noobed it with the mui choy by not soaking it long enough. The result was extremely salty soup base for the dish, I ended up having to rinse the pork and mui choy 3-4 times while cooking half way. That should teach me a lesson not to try to be fast in cooking traditional Chinese dishes.

Till the next recipe post, happy cooking!

KY eats – Yat Yeh Heng steamboat, Kelan Jaya

The funny thing about foodie is that we often go on a long journey to sample something that we heard is good, but at the same time ignores the more famous eateries that are much closer to us. One of such places that I’ve managed to ignore for the past 7 years or so is the steamboat place Yat Yeh Heng,

Yat Yeh Heng is what steamboat is all about this part of Klang Valley, way before the rise in prominence of the various “pulau ketam” steamboat places, buffet style steamboats like Yuen, or the slightly more luxurious style like Damansara Village steamboat.

awesome chicken wings, and pretty good fried lala

The only reason Yat Yeh Heng eluded me all these while was the simple fact that the restaurant is located too near from where I stay.

Anyway, not too long ago we finally found ourselves at the area looking for something to eat, and decided to finally give this place a try. Alongside with 4 portions of standard steamboat set, we also ordered extra serving of fish meat, a plate of kam heong fried lala, and their famous fried chicken wings.

old school ingredients, awesome steamboat

Service wasn’t the fastest when there wasn’t even very packed there, but Yat Yeh Heng does redeem itself as soon as the lala and chicken wings arrived at the table. They were delicious!

The lala is comparable to the one at Alisan, and the chicken wings were simply superb, it must be one of the best I’ve had.

As for the steamboat, the soup were good, and ingredients pretty fresh as well. Together with the chili paste plus fried shallots (I always love to mix them), it is about as good as any steamboat places, except you won’t fret over finding a place to park at Yat Yeh Heng. We had both tomyam and clear soup, and I’d suggest you to start with clear soup before tomyam lest you want to not taste the former.

Together with drinks, the total bill came up to RM 133 for 7 of us, slightly less than RM 20 per pax. Satisfying dinner indeed, steamboat doesn’t need to always be in buffet format.

During lunch time, the same restaurant has a very famous and super busy chicken rice stall.

Address:
33, Jalan SS 4D/2,
People’s Park,
47301 Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.112802, 101.599245
Tel:012-629 4807

Remember the previous post about the mysterious sign? I also posted a video on facebook, the same one like below:

Apparently these “signs” are appearing everywhere, and there’s already a guy hot on it’s trail. Check out this dedicated blog – Lambang Misteri. I’ve also seen the same signs at a few places in KL while at work.

A document related to this phenomena were recently uncovered and there appears to be a link – kolony.com.my. The mystery is soon to be revealed, I believe, but the link isn’t working for me at this time.. ermm…

KY eats – My Honeymoon Desserts

A couple weeks ago I was invited to a pretty sweet offering – a food tasting session at My Honeymoon desserts at Kota Damansara.

Now desserts is often favored by female more than guys, and I think there’s a very good reason to it. DESSERTS is spelled exactly backwards of STRESSED,and are usually chilled, hence the XX portion of humankind are often the more chillax of the two.

We shall learn.

My Honeymoon Desserts

The story is, the owners of My Honeymoon went to Hong Kong for their, well, honeymoon and fell in love with the desserts during their the visit. The cravings started to mount when they’re back home, and hence the restaurant was born. Long version of the story here.

Mix Fruits Lo, Mango Special Lo

There were 11 of us at this review session, and 10 of them happened to be female, just like I mentioned earlier right?

We had quite a lot of different desserts over the night, in fact, it was the most desserts I had in one seating, and here I shall attempt to categorize them slightly:

The Lo down:

• Mix Fruit Lo – honeydew, mango, watermelon, and more in this mixture of goodness, best of those who can’t decide
• Mango Special Lo – the mango at My Honeymoon desserts is imported from Philippines, you can be sure of the quality. I’ve always love the mango from Philippines, even the dried version, but this one’s just superb!

Mango Cream with Sago & Pamelo, Durian & Mango Pancakes

The pancakes:

• Durian pancake – this is one of the must-haves at My Honeymoon Desserts if you’re a durian lover, but a must-avoid if you can’t stand durian for this is the real deal, plenty of King of fruits with all it’s glory… and smell.
• Mango pancake – yep, it’s the mango again, mango and cream doesn’t work that well for me, but some swear by it.

assorted summer special, tofu magic snow ice
sweet memory, colorful granulated ice

Sweet and creamy delights:

• Mango cream with sago & pamelo – the sweetness of mango & sago in contrast with the explosion of citrus when you bite into pamelo sacks, very interesting
• Sweet Memory – Durian and beans, the name is perfect for durian lovers!

Shaved ice, new age ice kacang?:

• Assorted Summer Special – almost like a shaved ice version of mix fruit lo, best for those who can’t decide
• Tofu magic snow ice - the healthy choice, I like the big red beans and the tofu was a bit unexpected but in a good way
• Mango snow ice – mango, shaved ice, pearl, do I need to say more?

special baked rice cake, Rachel presenting the mellow fellow pastry

Pastry items:

• Special baked rice cake – I felt that this one could be a little sweeter, essentially a baked  ”nian gao” (chinese sticky rice cake), not oily like the fried type
• Mellow Fellow Pastry – topped with a scoop of chocolate ice cream, the crispy pastry with it’s filling were truly awesome, a perfect blend of sweet,s lightly salty and the right amount of savory tastes.

hello, chocolate sweet ball with crushed peanuts,
sweet ball coated with crushed peanuts, mango special maruko

Pearly goodies:

• Hello – a mixture of tofu, pearl, cincau, and mango base. The pearls are big and juicy, I like them. Could probably use a better name though
• Mango Special Maruko – more pearls and mango, if you love them equally, this is a good choice

We’ve got balls too:

• Chocolate sweet balls with crushed peanuts – half a dozen ping pong ball sized tong yuen with black sesame fillings served with crushed nuts and chocolate sauce, addictive
• Sweet balls coated with crushed peanuts – same as above for those who doesn’t like chocolate sauce

7 up mint syrup with sago-blue, mango magic snow ice,
mango glutinous roll, mango pudding

Other desserts I couldn’t categorize:

• Colorful granulated rice - I think this is a two in one type of deal where you get to have fruits and glutinous rice at the same time, main meal and dessert in one go, pretty good!
• Mango pudding – yet another mango dessert, this one without any ice, done rather well, and the paler color shows that there’s no artificial coloring involved
• Mango glutinous roll – the shredded coconut in this dish brings out the sweetness of mango even more

Yuenny, Mimi, CitiGal, Haze, Rachel & Karen, Fresh, Jackqie

Scarily, the desserts you see here is but 1/4 to 1/3 of what is available at this outlet, so there’s plenty of choices to fit every type of taste. Most desserts here are priced below RM 10 and come in pretty good size portion, better deal than having just a cup of coffee at many places, and a cheaper too.

Ultimately, the desserts were made even better with the company I was with, the lovely girls from Nuffnang made this possible and it was a blast!

Address:
My Honeymoon Desserts
No. 22, PJU 5/10,. Kota Damansara,
47810. Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.151556, 101.593044
Tel: 03-6150 3325

By the way, first FIVE commenter who state Karen’s last name correctly gets free RM 20 voucher! (you’re not qualified if u work for nuffnang hehehe)